Musei Civici d'Arte Antica

The Museo Civico Medievale/Istituzione Bologna Musei, in collaboration with the Museo della Sanità (Genus Bononiae Musei nella Città Bologna), Biblioteca dell'Archiginnasio/Istituzione Biblioteche, and the Soprintendenza del Polo Museale dell'Emilia Romagna, will, for the first, time dedicate an exhibition centered on the theme of Confraternite Bolognesi. The exhibition takes a closer look at the neighboring Santa Maria della Vita and Santa Maria della Morte. The Confraternita della Vita resided inside the church of the same name in via Clavature, while the Confraternita della Morte extended from via Marchesana to the portico still bearing its name that runs along via Archiginnasio and flanks the side of San Petronio.

Curated by Massimo Medica and Mark Gregory D'Apuzzo, the exhibition will be held in the Lapidario of the Museo Civico Medievale and contains more than fifty works from important city institutions. These include the Museo della Sanità, originally home to the Antico Ospedale di Santa Maria della Vita, the Biblioteca dell’Archiginnasio, and the Pinacoteca Nazionale. Further works will be on display from the three Musei d’Arte Antica (Museo Medievale, Davia Bargellini, Collezioni Comunali d'Arte) and from private collections.

The first part of the exhibition investigates how, before the arrival of the Disciplinati in Bologna in 1261, the city played host to no confraternities—organizations designed as broad-based popular devotional brotherhoods. Only after the arrival of these Disciplinati did Bologna and the surrounding areas see the development of these spiritual brotherhoods with exclusively religious objectives that included prayer, penance, and acts of mercy toward the poor.

It was Raniero Fasani and his followers who founded the movement of the Disciplinati or Flagellanti or Battuti in the Umbrian city of Perugia. He later created the brotherhood of Battuti Bianchi, or flagellant friars, in Bologna. Fasani, alongside the Bolognese Bonaparte Ghisilieri and the Franciscan tertiary Suor Dolce, also worked to open a hospital in the city’s center in 1275. Supported by the brotherhood, the hospital was dedicated to aiding both the ill and visiting pilgrims.

Near the hospital, a small church dedicated to San Vito was also built. According to sources, owing to the many healings and the expertise of its doctors, the church assumed a new name, becoming the Chiesa della Vita. Both the hospital and the brotherhood soon followed suit and adopted the same name. As it is well-known, the famous sanctuary, renowned hospital and confraternita all grew up around this original nucleus.

In 1801, just a few years after the Napoleonic invasion, the Ospedale della Vita merged with the Ospedale della Morte to form one large complex called the Grande Ospedale della Vita e della Morte.

Through artistic and documentary evidence, it has been possible to reconstruct the history of the other brotherhood, the Confraternita della Santa Maria della Morte. The brotherhood’s charity work was eventually perceived by the Bolognese government as a means to exercise social control over the city. The brotherhood tried to assist prisoners and those convicted to death by caring for them when they were ill and, eventually, arranging for their burial.

The confraternity was founded in 1336, on basis of the preaching of the Dominican Venturino da Bergamo who spent two years in the city at the Convent of San Domenico (1332-1334). Along with the church, the hospice was created to serve those who were impoverished and ill. Such a hospice was laid out in three divisions—the first was reserved for men, the second for women, and the third for “those who are wounded.” The sources report: “There, everyone was attended to with wonderful charitableness, both for the soul and for the body, and cared for by the best citizens.”

After 1433, the Compagnia also dedicated itself to the conveyance of the Beata Vergine di San Luca from the hill of the Guardia into the city. For this reason, in some works, the symbol of the Compagnia appears alongside the symbol of the Madonna di San Luca. In the exhibition, this this can be seen in four candlesticks in silver-plated bronze.

This exhibition is an opportunity to reconstruct the activity of both brotherhoods with a rich selection of figurative material (i.e. painting, miniatures, sculpture, ceramics, and goldwork), with particular attention paid to the many miniatures contained inside the Statuti of both Compagnie, created from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century. From among these, there is a work from 1200 done by the Bolognese miniature painter called the Maestro della Bibbia Latina 18. In addition, the show includes a privately owned example, dated to 1393 and displayed for the first time, with the Statuti di Santa Maria della Morte that represents one of the brotherhood’s oldest documents. Alongside these, sixteenth century miniature painting is represented, as well, with an illustration from 1555, recently attributed to Prospero Fontana, one of the Bolognese painters who dominated the artistic scene in the Early Modern Age. Another work from the same artist will also be on display—the important panel of the Deposizione was originally found in the Chiesa della Morte but today, along with Alessandro Tiarini’s Transito della Vergine, resides within Bologna’s Pinacoteca Nazionale.

In addition to painting, there are many works of sculpture, including two allegorical depictions of Chimica and Morte crafted from gilded wood that originated in the old pharmacy of the Ospedale della Morte. Also from the pharmacy come many ceramic vases painted with the insignia of both brotherhoods. Together they belong to one of the most prominent collections in Italy, an assortment of 159 pieces significant both for their number and for their quality.

Finally, there are significant pieces of goldwork that have been preserved in the Museo della Sanità. Among these there are the refined liturgical service in embossed and chiseled silver crafted by the renowned Bolognese silversmith Filippo Carlo Providoni, and the silver reliquary by Beato Raniero.